"Yeah, Faithy, he's not angry with you."
Faith rolled her eyes at Rex's jibe. The brothers could joke with Tristan as no one else could. While they respected him, and Faith had seen numerous occasions in which that was apparent, they could also jab at him and make fun of him as you only could with a sibling.
Faith's heart panged. Andrew had been the closest thing she had to a sibling. They'd been as close as any brother and sister ever could be and his death haunted her nightly. She needed to keep the goal of avenging Andrew in mind if she wanted to get through this. The rest of it, mating aside, was pudding in comparison to that mission.
"Got any food here, Faithy?" Rex had used that nickname again.
Theo leapt at Rex, shifting as he did it. Rex had one second after impact to shift himself and seconds later Faith had two growling wolves wrestling and destroying her set of rooms. She shrieked.
Tristan grabbed her arms. "Let them alone."
"Yes my Alpha." Wait, what? "Why am I leaving them alone while they destroy my home?"
"Theo has to be welcomed back into the pack whether he wants to be or not or he cannot stay here. Rex is testing him, seeing who is stronger. It's a testosterone thing."
"Do you think they could take their macho show outside?"
Faith knew who would win the fight if it were left to go to conclusion. Rex was tough, she'd watched him spar, but Theo had lived in his wolf form for months hunting for his food and surviving on his own. She'd pit him against anyone, even Tristan if it came to that, which she truly hoped it didn't.
Tristan whistled and both wolves jumped back. "You are destroying Faith's home."
They stepped away from each other, Theo's dark wolf growling as he walked back to the couch. Still in his furred form, he jumped up on the cushions. Faith had an urge to tell him to get off of the furniture as her foster mother had done a million times to the dog when she'd grown up. She shook her head. Where had that crazy memory come from?
Rex shifted back and stood behind Tristan, his eyes not leaving Theo.
"Tell us what little you saw of the danger. Perhaps we can help."
Faith wanted to pull out her hair. All good intentions aside she wanted them all out of her space so she could speak with Theo about what happened, draw her own conclusions, and then report to the group when she was ready.
"I was just going to clarify some things with Theo."
"And you don't want to tell me?"
Tell him; tell him, he could cast us out.
Faith often wondered if other people's wolves had the neurosis hers did. She didn't know if Tristan would cast out a member of his pack or not but she couldn't live her life based on that fear.
"I don't want to discuss it yet, no." There she had said it, consequences be damned.
Tristan nodded. "Okay, I'll expect your report in the morning." He nodded to Faith. "Good to see you, brother. As far as I'm concerned you're back. I am revoking your rights to live on your own." Theo yelped on the couch and Faith's heart nearly exploded. She had done this; she'd made him come back, and told him he could leave again. Damn it. "Rex, let's go."
Tristan shut the door behind him and Faith almost gave into the need to sink to her knees. She'd never felt grief like this before and she'd just met Theo. If this was what it was like to be mated without even having consummated the thing then she wasn't sure she and Theo should ever take it that far. How much more co-dependent could she get?
"I don't suppose you're going to talk to me now are you?" The silence that met her question was all the answer she needed. She nodded. "Fine, I suppose you're entitled to your silence. I'd be pissed at me too."
Her clothes felt heavy, her hair sticky, and she needed to be clean. Turning around without another word, she walked into her bathroom and closed the door. She put on the shower and threw her clothes on the floor.
"Pick up after yourself, Faith, don't be a slob." She mimicked the administrators of the orphanage who had come and taken her from the foster home. Those women had hated everything about her and she couldn't blame them for their dislike. She'd never been easy and in an institutional setting she'd been a disaster.
She scrubbed her hair with the strawberry shampoo Ashlee made for all the women on the island and contemplated her life. Everything had happened so quickly. She'd lost Andrew in the most awful way and when she'd used all of her abilities to track down where he'd been and how he could have gotten that way. With the little she'd gathered she'd run off to Mexico thinking she would be a big hero and stop it from happening again to anyone else, kidnapped Summer--stuck in her wolf form--and gotten more than she'd bargained for in the process. I mean who didn't want their first shift forced on them in the middle of the jungle and by accident to boot?
Suddenly nothing about her life made any sense so she'd had no choice but to go to Westervelt and find out who she really was, who her parents were, and how she was going to live the rest of her life.
Now there was the Theo to contend with.
Tears she hadn't known had dripped from her eyes fell down her cheeks and she had a hard time distinguishing them from the water pushing out of the showerhead. Not surprisingly, any thoughts of Andrew while she was alone led to tears one way or another. Also there was the problem that she didn't seem to have any special mystical powers and all the females on Westervelt were supposed to have those.
Don't be so hard on us. We'll get there.
She shut off the stream of water and covered herself in her large purple bathrobe. The logo on it read Westervelt Spa, they sold it at the gift shop on the other island. She'd been given one when she came to the island.
A soft scratching at the door caught her attention. She sighed and opened it, not caring how awful she must look. Theo whimpered softly, his tail moving back and forth.
"Still hanging out in wolf form, are you?" He stared up at her, his eyes--Theo's human eyes--encased in his furry body. Faith knelt down to be face to face to with him. "You're not talking either, not even in my mind."
Theo licked her cheeks and Faith remembered they were covered in tearstains. The gesture felt so comforting she almost started crying again. What must this man have been like when he spent most of his time as just that, a man? If he hadn't been hurt and she hadn't waited so long to come to Westervelt, would their life have been easy together like it was with the three couples she'd watched form in her time here?
"We still need to talk."
Theo snorted and ran to her bedroom. He jumped on the bed.
She laughed. "So sorry, buddy, but you'd have to spend a lot more time in man form for us to do that. When you're like this I kind of think of you as the friendly family dog."
Theo growled.
"Well if you don't like it, change back."
Walking to her bureau, she pulled out her comfy pink cotton pajamas. She had sexier things she could wear but if he was going to spend all of his time walking on four feet, he could very well look at her in whatever she felt like wearing. Quickly, she shoved on her PJs.
Faith considered her options for a moment. She could kick Theo off the bed or she could let him lay next to her like some kind of Golden Retriever. Lying down, he snuggled up next to her while she turned off the lamp encasing the room in total darkness. Why did she put the clothes on?
A warm white light briefly glowed as Theo shifted back to his human form. Where his paw had been now his hand resided. This was a much more intimate feeling. It was as if they were lovers resting in each other's arms.
Theo planted a kiss on the back of her head. "Don't ever make the mistake of thinking of me as the family dog."